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Fenix 6X Pro GPS and altitude problems

Majasako
over 5 years ago

Once again, the Fenix line has failed my trust. I was expecting better calibration of the GPS chipset and the altitude sensor, as my earlier watch was a 3 HR, but no. The altitude randomly and unexpectedly rises/sinks without any warning. Auto calibration is ON, and my altitude changed from 168 meters to 82 meters just now. If I calibrate with DEM, it will set the correct altitude. It can keep it on the correct altitude for a few days, but it then calibrates it at least 100 meters less, usually. Very frustrating.

Also the GPS track will wander all around the place too much. The older F3HR was much more spot on, the Fenix 6X will have an error distance of 20 meters from the actual position at worst.

Luckily, there's something good in this watch still: it's way faster than the 3HR, battery lasts quite long and the HR sensor is a tiny bit better than the 3HR, but still awful and not usable for any real training.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Chris

    Chris,

    Thank you sir you were completely right I ended up going to a near by airport and verified the altitude of the location I was parked at. Then I looked up the weather station info at the airport and entered it in after a few minutes when I knew the watch caught up to the pressure changes. Then I entered in the info and it was nearly perfect everywhere I went with weather changes it varies by 8-15 meters and that is no problem for me at all. I set it on Saturday and it's still good. One thing that is also aiding in it staying on point is that I turned off all auto calibration. I left on auto calibration while in activity and it completely messed up the numbers and had to head back to airport to recalibrate.

    Much appreciated :-)

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    Tuss,

    I cant give all credit to Chris because you told me about the weather station . Thank you I'm so happy I was able to figure this out.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Thank you for the details I will try the master reset tomorrow prior to calling Garmin because mine is off by 40 meters now after it was within 5-20 meters to actual altitude for nearly 5 days, it's just getting worse and worse. home location was off by 30 meter (higher then actual) yesterday and today 40 meters (also higher then actual).

    Watch mode :auto 

    Auto Calibration : in activity :off and not in activity :  off

    Last calibration was done manually near airport with altitude and berometer both adjusted per weather station 5.5 days back.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Les86

    Hi Les

    I am in total agreement with you. I am not that interested in the barometer settings, but I do keep having issues with the Altitude and if I don't calibrate it before every training session then it goes haywire, it is not our by 100m but bu 10 000m, that is huge. Why is a watch of this high end price doing this? I didn't read through all the answers but I wanted to know if you got a decent answer. Surely a watch that cost this much money with this much technology can't need me too calibrate before every training session...please help

    Gary

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to GGlitter

    Hey Gary,

    So normally I don't go into such detail when I reply to a post but I had a fellow Garmin owner really go into some detail on how to setup my setting and calibrations and also why there are errors with the elevation. I was literally I day away from returning my Garmin Fenix 6 pro but it's now 6 months and I couldn't be happier with my watch. And I like it so damn much that I even tell my wife occasionally "hey you remember how close I was to returning this thing?" That usually comes after I say randomly how much I like it. Alright so done to the real important stuff when I first started messing with the settings I actually drove to a nearby airport and found the weather station through the long and lat lucky for me I was able to park close and I set the altitude and barometer . I even took notes because what that person told me made sense you need to confirm you watch works and that is what this did. I found out that the altitude was spot on after that until weather changed then if was off by like 10 m or so I didn't care considering what errors I had before. Then I went for a run and initially set to continuous calibration while in activity. Then I got home and I was off by 40-60m so back to the airport I went then I changed my settings to "at start" in activity and that's it. So it will update my altitude at the start of a activity and that's it. I will run through my settings below so you can mirror them but that worked the best for me after that maybe once every 2-3 weeks I started a activity like walk after gps was aquired and I hit start and stop then delete activity and I was accurate once again. That was when I didn't do activity for a week or so but if you run or bike few times a week this will not be a issue. As long as this took me to write I am not proof reading it so if something doesn't make sense let me know my settings are below. I love my Fenix 6 pro and I couldn't be happier that I didn't return it back when I was having issues.

    Auto Cal. During activity "at start", not during activity : off, and in barometer under watch mode : auto

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Les86

    Mine is off by 400-600 feet and garmin said that it's normal to have 200-400 foot error when I called. What???

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Les86

    I live in a flat part of the country (houston TX) i went for a 63 mile ride today with the fenix 6 pro for the first time today and was surprised that i had set a new elevation gain record. 8000'. The elevation is about right but very erratic. Very frustrating.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    You had several weird drops to zero and below zero altitude which will obviously give you several incorrect gains when corrected.  The question is what caused those drops on a fairly flat course.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    The barometric altimeter in the F6 should only be used as a very rough guide as to your altitude change. There are so many factors that go into making an accurate calculation of your altitude over time that it is no wonder you can get strange answers.

    Read the info below to get some idea how complicated all this stuff is.

    Its an interesting and in-depth read.

    www.hills-database.co.uk/altim.html

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 2572376

    That doesn't explains why barometric altimeters in other products are much more accurate.